Day Trip to Sanibel

On Saturday, my mother and I drove to Sanibel and did the wildlife drive through the J. N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge (what a name, eh? I particularly like the quotation marks), basically just to get out of the house and go somewhere. We had though to go last weekend, but with the rain and clouds as Tropical Storm Sally went by, it wasn't fun weather for a day trip. Second time lucky: the weather was beautiful. 

And wasn't it nice to get out of the house, and off the familiar paths we've mostly been on for these last months. Even the parts of getting there that weren't lovely were at least different.

We stopped for lunch at Dante's, at the Sanibel Outlets, and the food was really good. We were drinking Cokes, but clearly they have others in mind as an audience. Look at the taps! And the list of what's available.

Impressive even to a non-beer drinker.

The Wildlife Drive itself is 4 miles, and given how slowly one goes, and how often one stops, it takes some time and is very enjoyable. At this time of the year, it's also not very busy, which was nice; I imagine that going through in season would require a lot more attention on the part of the driver to driving, while I was able to really look around.

Ibis

Very well-camouflaged black bird in the brush.

See him? Just left of center here.

Don't worry if you can't. Even I have trouble seeing him, and I know where he is. He was easier to see when he moved, and the light shimmered on his feathers.

I climbed a small tower, and saw some birds in the water off that way.

I managed to get a picture of them through the binoculars that were on the tower.

And of course, just down the road, there they were.

As was this bird on one side of the road.

And on the other side, what, an iguana, maybe? He moved pretty fast!

Lots of beautiful views.

After the drive, we drove on and around Captiva, and then back. And I had to circle back to get a picture of this sign! Wouldn't you?

We did not see any owls, though. Which may be for the best.

Maggie was quite cross that we had been out so long; is she ever out of the habit! Once she got onto my lap (after snubbing me for a while), she was not easy to get off.

"Stop leaving me. Ever."